Leading Pediatric Critical Care Expert
Dr. Bradley Peterson
My name is Bradley Peterson and I am a pediatric intensive care physician with over 40 years of experience in caring for the sickest and most severely injured children in San Diego, California and its extended service area of some 5 million people. I am board certified in pediatrics, anesthesia, and pediatric critical care. I also have extensive experience in post-operative congenital cardiac disease.
I have served as chairman of the PICU morbidity and mortality conference for 40 years. I also chair the pediatric transport morbidity and mortality meeting and have co-chaired the trauma morbidity and mortality conference.
I served as the medical director and grew a 54-bed PICU from an 8-bed PICU in its opening in 1978. I still care for patients and take regular calls. In my career I have cared for more than 30,000 patients and achieved some of the best survival rates in the nation as measured by the National PRISM scores.
I helped establish the pediatric trauma center. In 1984 I started the Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship program at Rady’s Childern’s Center. This fellowship program, which bears my name, has trained more than 70 pediatric critical care physicians. Today, my former fellows work in PICUs across the country. These fellows have had a nearly 100% success rate for passing their board exams and often place among the best scores in the country.
Additionally, I have been instrumental in building a critical care transport program that now transports over a thousand critically ill and injured children each year. I am currently the medical director of this transport team.
I have extensive experience in all causes of respiratory failure, shock and multiple organ failure, hepatic failure, cardiac arrest and trauma, including non-accidental trauma. And, all cases of coma including meningitis, encephalitis, and intracranial hemorrhage are also areas of expertise. Finally, additional care has included drowning, snakebite, and poisoning.
I have published extensively on care for severe head injuries using Hypertonic Saline, and am largely credited with popularizing the technique. I have also popularized high frequency low stretch mechanical ventilation use in pediatrics.
I have been an expert witness many times, including testifying, over the last 40 years. With this background, I believe I can offer unmatched expertise related to pediatric cases and am available for review and consultation on complex medical and medical legal cases.
